World’s Oldest Man To Have His Bar Mitzvah 100 Years Late

The world’s oldest man, Yisreal Kristal is celebrating his 113th birthday by finally having his Bar Mitzvah, 100 years later than he originally planned it.

He’ll be taking part in the Jewish rite of passage which should have happened a century ago, but in 1916 when Kristal was supposed to have his Bar Mitzvah, World War 1 was still ongoing and ravaging his homeland of Poland.

World’s oldest Bar Mitzvah

Two decades later, he was running a candy business with his family in Lodz when the Nazi’s invaded. He was however booted out of the city and into a Polish ghetto. Two of his children died there. Kristal and his wife he married at 25 endured only for her to be shipped off to Auschwitz in 1994. His wife was one of the 1.1 million Jews killed at the concentration camp.

About 100 of Kristal’s family members are going to Isreal to help his celebrate this great occasion. His daughter, Shulimath Kristal Kuperscotch said “We will bless him, we will dance with him and we will be happy”. Kristal became the world’s oldest man in March when Japan’s Yasutaro Kolde died.